Andrew McCarthy On Trump’s Request To Comey To Back Off Flynn Investigation: ‘It’s Icky’

President Donald Trump returns to the White House, on May 17, 2017 in Washington, D.C. (credit: OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP/Getty Images)

Philadelphia (CBS) – Andrew McCarthy, a writer for National Review and a former U.S. Attorney, discussed a New York Times report that former FBI Director James Comey authored a memo detailing President Donald Trump’s interference regarding an investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, telling Chris Stigall on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT that the essential matter at hand is whether or not Trump intended to curtail the inquiry.

“If he substituted his judgement for Comey’s under circumstances where he would try to make it look like Flynn was being cleared but he was actually orchestrating it, to me… the key word in the statute of obstruction to justice is ‘corruptly.’ What corruptly means is you have to understand that what you’re doing is a violation of the law and you have to do it with a specific purpose to subvert an ongoing investigation. I don’t think what we have from Trump comes close to that. Although, it’s icky.”

McCarthy said he would like to see the entire memo before making any further conclusions related to its content.

“Evidently, Comey wrote these kind of memoranda a lot, according to what we’re hearing. What the Times has mined is one basic statement out of what is surely a longer memo and anyone who wants to evaluate something for purposes of obstruction of justice would want to see the entire context of the conversation. For example, we would think much differently, perhaps, of what we know about it, if we learned that Trump said, look, I’m not telling you what to do and you do whatever you think is right, but I really hope you see your way clear to letting Flynn go because I think he’s a good guy. That would be awkward. It would probably be inappropriate, but it would not rise to the level of criminality.”

He also stated the investigation does not look like it has been impacted in any way.

“The grand jury is up and running. Obviously, the Justice Department doesn’t feel impeded. They’re proceeding. Subpoenas are, evidently, flying out. They’re sure not acting like an outfit that thought that the president was derailing them.”